Refuge des Évettes

Refuge des Évettes is a staffed mountain hut at an elevation of 2,594 m in the Vanoise massif of the Alps, in the Haute-Maurienne Valley of Savoie, France. It stands in the Cirque des Évettes, in the commune of Bonneval-sur-Arc, and is operated by the Lyon Villeurbanne section of the Club Alpin Français, part of the Fédération Française des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne network of refuges. As a commercial hospitality offering, it provides seasonal accommodation and services to hikers, mountaineers and ski tourers in a remote alpine setting. The first refuge on the site, a stone building, was constructed in 1907 by the CAF in partnership with the Touring Club de France. It was deliberately destroyed by the French army in June 1940 so it could not be used by advancing Italian forces, and was replaced in 1948 by a temporary wooden shelter. In the early 1960s the CAF undertook a broader programme of renewing its high-altitude facilities and in 1968 decided to rebuild the Évettes refuge on the same site with a capacity of 70 people. The commission went to Atelier d'Architecture en Montagne (AAM) of Chambéry, a practice known for mountain developments including Courchevel 1850 and Les Arcs. The project architect, Guy Rey-Millet, worked with engineer Jean Prouvé and his collaborator Léon Pétroff, who had developed a self-supporting three-dimensional aluminium frame system built for small triangulated models. This construction method removed the need for internal load-bearing supports and left the floor plan free. The frame components were prefabricated off site, allowing them to be transported by helicopter in small, lightweight sections and assembled without heavy lifting equipment. Stone from the earlier demolished refuge was reused for the new building's base. The current building was erected over eight weeks in the summer of 1970 by a team of three workers and opened that year. The refuge sits on a south-facing site above a group of small, rock-bordered lakes, facing the glacial cirque and the séracs of the Évettes glacier, below the peaks of Albaron (3,637 m) and Grande Ciamarella (3,676 m). It can be reached from Bonneval-sur-Arc by driving 4 km to the hamlet of L'Écot, then following the slopes to the right of the cliff up to the Col des Évettes before continuing north to the refuge. It is used as a base both for family day hikers to the surrounding lakes and glacier, and for mountaineers and ski tourers attempting the Albaron and Grande Ciamarella or crossing the Évettes and Grand Méan glaciers. It is staffed in two seasons each year, broadly from late February/early March to early [summer] and from mid-to-late June to early September, with dates varying annually. In 2017 the FFCAM adopted a 10-year renovation plan for its refuge network. A related reconstruction scheme for the Évettes refuge, assigned to architect Philippe Caire in April 2021, called for the demolition of the existing building and its replacement with a 354 m² structure with a capacity for 54 beds. Docomomo France, a heritage conservation organisation, wrote to the regional cultural affairs authority in February 2022 to argue for the building's preservation, on the grounds that it is among the few surviving structures built using the Prouvé–Pétroff aluminium frame system and would, at its elevation, be the highest refuge in the world with such a frame. The organisation also pointed to the 2017 demolition of the comparable Refuge du Col de la Vanoise, which had itself been officially labelled a "20th-century heritage" building in 2023, as a precedent it hoped would not be repeated. The dispute highlights the tension between modernising alpine hospitality infrastructure and preserving mid-20th-century architectural heritage.

The first refuge on the Évettes site, a stone building, was constructed in 1907 by the Club Alpin Français (CAF) in partnership with the Touring Club de France. It was deliberately destroyed by the French army in June 1940 so it could not be used by advancing Italian forces, and was replaced in 1948 by a temporary wooden shelter. In the early 1960s the CAF undertook a broader programme of renewing its high-altitude facilities and in 1968 decided to rebuild the Évettes refuge on the same site with a capacity of 70 people. The commission went to Atelier d'Architecture en Montagne (AAM) of Chambéry, a practice known for mountain developments including Courchevel 1850 and Les Arcs. The project architect, Guy Rey-Millet, worked with engineer Jean Prouvé and his collaborator Léon Pétroff, who had developed a self-supporting three-dimensional aluminium frame system built for small triangulated models. This construction method removed the need for internal load-bearing supports and left the floor plan free. The frame components were prefabricated off site, allowing them to be transported by helicopter in small, lightweight sections and assembled without heavy lifting equipment. Stone from the earlier demolished refuge was reused for the new building's base. The current building was erected over eight weeks in the summer of 1970 by a team of three workers and opened that year. In 2017 the FFCAM adopted a 10-year renovation plan for its refuge network. A related reconstruction scheme for the Évettes refuge, assigned to architect Philippe Caire in April 2021, called for the demolition of the existing building and its replacement with a 354 m² structure with a capacity for 54 beds. Docomomo France, a heritage conservation organisation, wrote to the regional cultural affairs authority in February 2022 to argue for the building's preservation, on the grounds that it is among the few surviving structures built using the Prouvé–Pétroff aluminium frame system and would, at its elevation, be the highest refuge in the world with such a frame. The organisation also pointed to the 2017 demolition of the comparable Refuge du Col de la Vanoise, which had itself been officially labelled a "20th-century heritage" building in 2023, as a precedent it hoped would not be repeated.

• 2022

  Docomomo France writes to the regional cultural affairs authority in February to argue for the building's preservation.

• 2021

  A reconstruction scheme for the Évettes refuge is assigned to architect Philippe Caire in April, calling for demolition and replacement.

• 2017

  The FFCAM adopts a 10-year renovation plan for its refuge network.

• 1970

  The current building is erected over eight weeks in the summer by a team of three workers and opens that year.

• 1968

  The CAF decides to rebuild the Évettes refuge on the same site with a capacity of 70 people.

• 1948

  A temporary wooden shelter replaces the destroyed refuge.

• 1940

  The stone refuge is deliberately destroyed by the French army in June so it could not be used by advancing Italian forces.

• 1907

  First stone refuge built on the site by the CAF in partnership with the Touring Club de France.

A remote, high-altitude staffed refuge in the Vanoise massif, serving hikers, mountaineers and ski tourers, and recognised for its pioneering prefabricated aluminium frame architecture.

• Staffed mountain hut accommodation

  Seasonal lodging for hikers, mountaineers and ski tourers at 2,594 m.

• Prouvé–Pétroff aluminium frame building

  A self-supporting three-dimensional aluminium frame structure with prefabricated Matra panels.

1. 1Refuge des Évettesen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Refuge des Évetteswikidata.org